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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22518805">red string</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyjeongin/pseuds/rosyjeongin'>rosyjeongin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dreaming of a white christmas | nct dream [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, High School, Romantic Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:55:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,838</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22518805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyjeongin/pseuds/rosyjeongin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>jeno just wants to kiss you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Jeno/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dreaming of a white christmas | nct dream [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591993</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>red string</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jeno sighs, sinking into his seat. The teacher continues to demonstrate knitting techniques at the front of the class, but Jeno keeps glancing back at the clock above the door. The seconds tick away, but every time he glances up at them, they seem to tick away slower. </p>
<p><i>I could totally leave right now. Just get up and go.</i> He tries to make himself stand up. He can’t. <i>Ugh, but I gotta stay the whole class. Would I seem rude if I just left?</i> He leans forward and rests his chin in his hands, still not listening to the lecture. <i>What am I even doing here? Why did I let Jaemin force me into this?</i></p>
<p>He remembers the conversation.</p>
<p>“Jeno!” Jeno turns around and see a grinning Jaemin approaching him. “How did the presentations go?” Jeno continues his way across the quad, with Jaemin matching his step beside him.</p>
<p>“They went okay.” He shrugs.</p>
<p>“Hey,” Jaemin begins, hands clasped behind his back. “I was wondering if you have stuff to do after school?”</p>
<p>“Today?” Jaemin nods. “I mean, not really. I was just gonna go home and… do whatever…” </p>
<p>Jaemin smiles. “So, uh, do you think you could go to this knitting class thing? It’s just this short extracurricular.”</p>
<p>Jeno shrugs. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Well, I know someone who goes there often, and attendance has been kind of… lacking. If it continues, the club might shut down all together. Do you think you could go today? Just to give them a little boost?” </p>
<p>Jeno raises an eyebrow at him, shifting his bookbag on his shoulders. “Why don’t you just go yourself?”</p>
<p>Jaemin’s eyes shuffle. “I actually have... plans. And you don’t even have to go everyday. Just this once. You can see what it’s like.” He clasps his hands together in front of him, looking up at Jeno. “Please? I kind of owe this friend… a favor.”</p>
<p>Jeno rolls his eyes. “Of course you do.” He runs a hand through his hair, sighing. “Fine, I’ll go.” He wags a finger at Jaemin. “But now you owe me one, too.”</p>
<p>Jaemin grins, clapping his hands together. “Thanks so much! Oh, and it starts at three, in room 208!”</p>
<p>So there Jeno was, in room 208, thirty minutes into the class. To be fair, the class wasn’t unbearably boring. It was just something that Jeno could immediately tell he wasn’t interested in. And the low numbers were obvious, too. Besides him, there were only a handful of other girls, probably trying to learn knitting for gifts this holiday season. He felt kind of out of place.</p>
<p>By the time Jeno had managed to turn his attention back to the front of the class, the teacher had already finished making a short piece of cloth from the yarn, like a section of a scarf. Just as the teacher was going to send the class to go try themselves, you burst through the door, heaving. Your bag is slung across one shoulder, and you glance around the class, making eye contact with Jeno for a few seconds. He looks away, towards the window, flustered by the sudden interaction.</p>
<p>“Sorry I’m late, Ms. Choi,” you say breathily. The entire class has their heads turned towards you.</p>
<p>“Ah, don’t worry about it, y/n.” She waves you off dismissively. “It’s just an after-school class, anyways.”</p>
<p>Jeno glances back up at you, and finds you approaching him steadily. You settle in the seat next to him, taking out the knitting set from the desk.</p>
<p>You’re focused, winding the thread skillfully through your hands. He observes you quietly, his knitting set lying untouched in front of him. He kind of likes the way your hair drapes from your shoulders as you hunch over the table, eyes squinting at the thread.</p>
<p>“Hey, do you know what to do?”</p>
<p>Jeno, at first, doesn’t realize that you’re speaking to him. He thinks you’ve caught him staring. “H-huh?” he stammers.</p>
<p>“Like, what did she just teach you guys?”</p>
<p>“Uh…” he scratches his temple sheepishly. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”</p>
<p>“Oh. That’s fine.” You glance away from the thread intertwined between your fingers and look at his face. “Hey, you haven’t been here before, have you?” Jeno shakes his head slowly. You shrug. “Makes sense. You don’t happen to know Na Jaemin, do you?”</p>
<p>Jeno’s eyebrows furrow, surprise at the mention of his friend’s name. “Yeah, I’m friends with him. He was the one who said I should come here, actually.”</p>
<p>You sigh, shaking your head at the thought of Jaemin. “That idiot. He was supposed to come here himself.”</p>
<p>It clicks with Jeno that you’re probably the one Jaemin was talking about. “Yeah, he said he owed you a favor?”</p>
<p>“Oh, he asked me to cover his shift at the coffee shop so he could go on this date. That’s why I came in late.”</p>
<p>Jeno rolls his eyes and laughs. “Well, that’s real funny, because he asked me to come here instead of him because he had ‘plans’. I think I know what those plans are now.”</p>
<p>You laugh, and, for some reason, Jeno feels his tummy tumble with butterflies. Your laugh was so pretty to him, like how it would sound if stars made noise. You turn towards him in your seat, eyes pointed up at him. He doesn’t know where to look, so he just fumbles with the ball of yarn directionlessly.</p>
<p>“Hey, since you’re new here, I could teach you some stuff.” You scoot your chair closer to him and bring his hands into yours. “Like, for starters, don’t hold the needle like that.” Jeno lets you take the needle from his fingertips, swallowing at the proximity of your touch. It’s strange of him, he thinks, to be absolutely in awe of a girl he just met minutes ago.</p>
<p>He glances around the room. The others are working together in clusters, talking to each other, but in low voices. The teacher is playing festive music from a radio at the front of the room as she finishes her own knitted piece. He looks back down at you, and now you’re demonstrating the way to weave the yarn through the eye of the needle so that it creates a pattern in the cloth. He catches a whiff of you, and he can pinpoint the aromas of coffee from working at the shop. He can feel himself sinking again.</p>
<p>You nudge him on the arm. “Hey, are you even listening to me?” Jeno just nods, blinking away from your face. You laugh. “You have a really short attention span, you know that? Come on, just try and follow what I do.”</p>
<p>He nods, now determined to listen to you. He tries his best to mimic the way your fingers thread the yarn, but every now and then he messes up, and the red string tangles together. But he’s learning.</p>
<p>“Wait, did I do this right?” Jeno holds up his piece to show you.</p>
<p>“Yeah, that’s great!” You give him a thumbs up and a smile, and he can’t help but smile back. He feels the tips of his ears redden whenever you smile at him like that, and he’s hoping you don’t notice. It’s also kind of hard to keep a steady hand whenever your knee grazes his, ever so gently, but it’s all it takes to unwind Jeno.</p>
<p>Jeno doesn’t realize it, but soon enough the class is almost over. His end product is a misshapen piece of cloth, but you can see the heart he put into it. Yours is admittedly better, and you two laugh at the comparison of the two.</p>
<p>For a change, Jeno doesn’t want the class to end, because now you’re pulling away from him to go pack up your things. The class is empty now; the teachers and the rest of the girls have already filed out the door to go home. Jeno is standing next to you, fumbling with his fingers. He’s trying to work up the courage to say something to you, <i>anything</i>. In the end, he just mutters out a quiet, “Do you want to go out?”</p>
<p>You glance up at him questioningly. “Sorry, what was that?”</p>
<p>“I, um—” Jeno clears his throat, then continues with more confidence. “Do you want to go out right now? Like to just go grab a coffee or something…” He trails off, and he notices the way you stare back at him. He quickly adds, “You don’t have to, of course. I was just suggesting it. Because I don’t really have anything else to do.” He runs his fingers through his hair nervously, waiting for your response.</p>
<p>Your eyes light up, and you smile brightly at him. “I’d love to, actually!” Jeno resists the urge to pump his fist in the air excitedly, and just returns his eye-smile right back at you. His ears threaten to redden again, but he swears a similar rosy tint has now dusted your cheeks. He’s never wanted to kiss you more in the single hour he’s known you. Jeno swears he’s in love.</p>
<p>That night, after you and Jeno spend the whole afternoon together, Jeno comes home and jumps into his bed, and he immediately goes to text you. Instead, a call from Jaemin pops up, so he answers it.</p>
<p>“Jeno!” Jaemin says too loudly, and Jeno has to pull his phone away from his ear. “You went on a date with y/n?!”</p>
<p>Jeno laughs sheepishly, and his heart spins at the thought of you. “I mean… I wouldn’t really call it a date…”</p>
<p>Jaemin scoffs. “Yeah, whatever. I can’t believe you decide to have a crush on someone in the one hour I leave you alone!”</p>
<p>“It’s not a crush! I just think she’s cool… and pretty. That’s all.”</p>
<p>“You literally just described her like you would describe a crush. I’ll smack you, Jeno.” There’s a sound from Jaemin’s end of the call, as if he had just slapped his phone to demonstrate. “Anyways, you two should thank me. I’m practically a matchmaker.”</p>
<p>“You had zero part in this, Jaemin. All you did was leave us to do your things so that you could go on a date.”<br/>“Man, the date wasn’t even worth it! She didn’t even show up on time! I had to wait thirty minutes, Jeno! Thirty minutes!” And as Jaemin begins to ramble on about his failed date, Jeno can’t rid his mind of you. The thoughts of your smile and your laugh and your hair plague him the whole night. Never in his life has he wanted to kiss someone so badly.</p>
<p>
  <i>(The next morning, you show up to school with the finished product of the knitting session wrapped up in a warm red bundle and hand it to Jeno. He accepts it gratefully, immediately unravelling it on the spot so he could wrap it around his neck. When you laugh and reach up to adjust the scarf, Jeno realizes that the knitting class may not be so bad after all.)</i>
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